Police forcibly enter Berkeley cannabis collective

BERKELEYSIDE: Berkeley police and city inspectors forcibly entered four apartments at 1820-1828 San Pablo Ave. on Tuesday to look for code violations in the medical cannabis collective Forty Acres,.

A squad of Berkeley police accompanied members of Berkeley’s code enforcement division in the surprise Oct. 8, 8 a.m. visit to the second floor of the building. An attorney for Chris Smith, a founder of Forty Acres and a resident of the apartments, said police broke down the door to his client’s home and may have drawn their guns. City officials said a door was removed from its hinges and that no-one was at the apartments at the time.

The raid came two weeks after Smith filed a lawsuit against the city of Berkeley, the Medical Cannabis Commission, Greg Daniel, a code enforcement officer, Elizabeth Greene, a city planner and staff member of the cannabis commission, Nathan Dahl, a planner, and a number of city departments.

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